Teva broadens suit against Copaxone copycats; Enzon sells marketed meds for $300M;

> Teva Pharmaceutical is seeking to amend its existing lawsuit against Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz to include infringement of three additional patents on its multiple sclerosis therapy Copaxone. Report [1]

> Enzon Pharmaceuticals is selling most of its business to Italian drugmaker sigma-tau Group for $300 million and will focus on its experimental cancer drugs and technologies. Report [2]

> GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to donate 50 million doses of pandemic H1N1 vaccine for use in developing countries in coming months, the WHO said. Report [3]

> The health plans that had sued Pfizer over their Lipitor costs have decided not to pursue any of the claims a judge had ruled they could re-plead in her court. Report [4]

> Hundreds of Scottish patients will be able to benefit from expensive new drugs, following a groundbreaking deal between the NHS and pharmaceutical companies. Report [5]

> The popular blood-thinner Plavix prevents heart attacks and strokes in both women and men, but the benefits differ slightly by gender, U.S. researchers said. Report [6]

> Pfizer China announced a strategic partnership with BMP Sunstone Corporation to import, distribute and promote a Pfizer product used to treat endometriosis in China. Report [7]

> Gloucester Pharmaceuticals got the FDA nod for Istodax, a treatment for a rare form of cancer known as Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma. Release [8]

Biotech News

> New details on the impact of Pfizer's big R&D shakeup are coming in from around the world this morning. There's still no word on exactly how many of the 14,500 people working in research for Wyeth and Pfizer will be laid off. Report [9]

> As GTC Biotherapeutics wielded the budget axe to trim 45 employees [10] from its rosters yesterday, the struggling company also earmarked $270,000 in retention bonuses for its top staffers. Report [11]

> A week after putting out the final data on its successful mid-stage cancer trial for OncoVex, BioVex has fattened its bank account with $30 million in fresh venture funds from a slate of new investors, bringing its total take for the year to a whopping $70 million. Report [12]

> Alder Biopharmaceuticals has scored a $1.07 billion licensing deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb for its IL-6 inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis, ALD518. Report [13]

> Shares of Avanir (AVNR) jumped almost 10 percent on th [14]e news that its low-dose version of Zenvia demonstrated a significant reduction in the number and severity of uncontrolled emotional outbursts among patients with multiple sclerosis over a treatment period of six months. Report [15]

Biotech Research News

> Scientists used a stripped down version of HIV to deliver a gene therapy payload into the DNA of two young patients suffering from a rare and fatal brain disease. Report [16]

> Some of the country's top academic research centers are promising to leverage their considerable brainpower used in pursuit of new drugs to obtain an affordable price for their products by the time they reach the world's poorest countries. Report [17]

> Geron's clinical stage embryonic stem cell treatment was used to restore the limb function of rats--a preclinical development that may allow the biotech company to expand the scope of its trial to include cervical damage. Report [18]

> Tissue bioengineering has already produced a number of spare parts for the human body, including bladders and cardiac patches. Now scientists at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University have created penile tissue for rabbits in what they call "the most complete functional replacement of erectile tissue reported to date." Report [19]

> Biomedical researchers have mounted an advertising campaign to support the use of animals in their research work, and animal rights activists responded by targeting a University of Minnesota scientist for retaliation. Report [20]

> Researchers at the Salk Institute have turned to a growing favorite in animal studies to learn more about regenerative medicine. A group of scientists at the institute--Scott Stewart, Zhi-Yang Tsun and Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte--have found the genetic switches that zebra fish require to activate some 100 genes involved in the reproduction of its tail. Report [21]

And Finally ... Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis. Report [22]